The Los Angeles class of submarines are nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (SSN) in service with the United States Navy. Also known as the 688 class after the hull number of lead vessel USS Los Angeles (SSN-688), 62 were built from 1972 to 1996, the latter 23 to an improved 688i standard. As of 2024, 24 of the Los Angeles class remain in commission—more than any other class in the world—and they account for almost half of the U.S. Navy's 50 fast attack submarines.
K-8 was a November-class submarine of the Soviet Northern Fleet that sank in the Bay of Biscay with her nuclear weapons on board on April 12, 1970. A fire on April 8 had disabled the submarine and it was being towed in rough seas. Fifty-two crewmen were killed attempting the salvage of the boat when it sank.
Project 651, known in the West by its NATO reporting name Juliett class, was a class of Soviet diesel-electric submarines armed with cruise missiles. They were designed in the late 1950s to provide the Soviet Navy with a nuclear strike capability against targets along the east coast of the United States and enemy combatants. The head of the design team was Abram Samuilovich Kassatsier. They carried four nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a range of approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km), which could be launched while the submarine was surfaced and moving less than four knots (7.4 km/h). Once surfaced, the first missile could be launched in about five minutes; subsequent missiles would follow within about ten seconds each. Initially, the missiles were the inertially-guided P-5. When submarine-launched ballistic missiles rendered the P-5s obsolescent, they were replaced with the P-6 designed to attack aircraft carriers. A special 10 m2 target guidance radar was built into the forward edge of the sail structure, which opened by rotating. One boat was eventually fitted with the Kasatka satellite downlink for targeting information to support P-500 4K-80 "Bazalt" anti-ship cruise missiles. The Juliett class had a low magnetic signature austenitic steel double hull, covered by two inches (51 mm) thick black tiles made of sound-absorbing hard rubber.
K-222 was the sole Project 661 "Anchar" nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarine of the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. Although the Soviets saw K-222 as an unsuccessful design, upon completion it was the world's fastest submarine and the first to be built with a titanium hull.
K-77 was a "Project 651" diesel–electric submarine built for the Soviet Navy during the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, the boat was armed with long-range cruise missiles to carry out its mission of destroying American aircraft carriers and bases. The missiles could be fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads.
The Skipjack class was a class of United States Navy nuclear submarines (SSNs) that entered service from 1959 to 1961. This class was named after its lead boat, USS Skipjack. The new class introduced the teardrop hull and the S5W reactor to U.S. nuclear submarines. The Skipjacks were the fastest U.S. nuclear submarines until the Los Angeles-class submarines, the first of which entered service in 1974.
The Echo class were nuclear cruise missile submarines of the Soviet Navy built during the 1960s. Their Soviet designation was Project 659 for the first five vessels, and Project 675 for the following twenty-nine. Their NATO reporting names were Echo I and Echo II. All were decommissioned by 1994.
Whiskey-class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarines that the Soviet Union built in the early Cold War period.
K-429 was a Project 670-A Скат nuclear submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down on 26 January 1971 at Krasnoye Sormovo in Gorky. She was launched on 22 April 1972, and was commissioned on 31 October 1972 into the Soviet Pacific Fleet.
С-178 (S-178) was a Project 613B diesel submarine of the Soviet Navy. On October 21, 1981, in the Sea of Japan, the submarine under the command of Valery Marango was hit by a cargo ship. The collision killed 32 sailors.
K-56 was a Project 675 nuclear submarine of the Soviet Navy.
The Soviet Navy's Project 611 were one of the first Soviet post-Second-World-War attack submarines. They were similarly capable to the American GUPPY fleet-boat conversions. They were a contemporary of the Whiskey-class submarines and shared a similar sonar arrangement. Like most conventional submarines designed 1946–1960, their design was influenced by the German World War II Type XXI U-boat.
The Russian submarine AG-12 was an AG-class submarine, designed by the American Holland Torpedo Boat Company/Electric Boat Company, built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. The submarine was fabricated in Canada, shipped to Russia and reassembled for service with the Baltic Fleet. She was scuttled by the Russians at Hanko in April 1918.
K-64 was the lead ship of the Project 705 nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Soviet Navy.
K-129 was a Project 629A diesel-electric-powered ballistic-missile submarine that served in the Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Navy. It was one of six Project 629 strategic ballistic-missile submarines assigned to the 15th Submarine Squadron based at Rybachiy Naval Base near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, commanded by Rear Admiral Rudolf Golosov.
The S-99 experimental submarine was the only ship of the Project 617 class that the Soviet Union built during the early Cold War. She was the only Soviet submarine which used a German Walter turbine fueled by high-test peroxide (HTP). Entering service in 1956, the boat was assigned to a training unit of the Baltic Fleet. S-99 was badly damaged by a HTP explosion in 1959 and was not repaired. The submarine was decommissioned in 1964 and subsequently scrapped.
The Japanese submarine I-179 was a Kaidai type cruiser submarine of the KD7 sub-class built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1940s. She was lost with all hands when a valve was accidentally left open during her sea trials in July 1943. Her wreck was later salvaged and scrapped in 1957.
K-70 was a "Project 651" diesel–electric submarine built for the Soviet Navy during the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, the boat was armed with long-range cruise missiles to carry out its mission of destroying American aircraft carriers and bases. The missiles could be fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads. K-70 was initially assigned to the Northern Fleet, but was transferred to the Pacific Fleet a few months later. The submarine was decommissioned in 1989 and subsequently scrapped.
K-68 was a "Project 651" diesel–electric submarine built for the Soviet Navy during the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, the boat was armed with long-range cruise missiles to carry out its mission of destroying American aircraft carriers and bases. The missiles could be fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads. While much of the submarine's activities during the Cold War are unknown, she did make at least one patrol in the Mediterranean Sea before serving as the test bed for an auxiliary nuclear reactor from 1976 to 1991. K-68 was decommissioned in 1992 and subsequently scrapped.
K-85 was a "Project 651" diesel-electric submarine built for the Soviet Navy during the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, the boat was armed with long-range cruise missiles to carry out its mission of destroying American aircraft carriers and bases. The missiles could be fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads. While much of the submarine's activities during the Cold War are unknown, she did make at least two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea while assigned to the Northern Fleet. The submarine was renamed B-124 in 1977 and was transferred to the Baltic Fleet four years later. B-124 was decommissioned in 1993 and subsequently scrapped.
Soviet Union
